About DIF-Jacket

Thermal Protective Clothing (TPC) Research & Development has been searching solutions to minimize firefighters’ heat load and skin burns. However, until now, the available commercial solutions solve isolated problems (e.g. of radiant heat or water vapour permeability). As a drawback, episodes of heat stroke and severe burns are still often. In this project, the multidisciplinary team will combine the available solutions and techniques to produce a Thermal Protective Clothing with outstanding performance.

In this project, the team intends to produce an innovative firefighter jacket by following a procedure based on the application of numerical models to optimize the design. Several designs will be tested numerically and the results validated in the laboratory (bench-scale tests). The prototype will be built and tested numerically and in the laboratory. The aim of the project is to design the jacket for a range of scenarios observed in Portuguese forest fires, with special emphasis on the transient nature of these scenarios. Moreover, a numerical model of heat and mass transfer through the protective equipment combined with a thermoregulation model of the human body will be used to predict how the firefighter thermal state is affected when facing a given forest fire scenario. The project also have a strong dissemination component in order to transfer useful information to the Portuguese firefighting institutions and firefighter associations, and we expect it will improve strategies and promote the correct use of firefighting equipment.

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